1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laminating apparatus which performs a laminating treatment by overlapping a laminating film with an object to be laminated, and heating and pressurizing the laminating film and the object, thereby enclosing the object with the laminating film, and to a recording apparatus comprising the laminating apparatus.
2. Related Background Art
Recording apparatuses which have functions of printers, copiers, facsimiles and the like, or recording apparatuses which are used as output apparatuses for composite type electronic equipments including computers, wordprocessors and the like or for work stations are configured to record images (including characters, symbols and the like) on recording media such as recording paper, thin plastic sheets and the like on the basis of image information. Dependently on recording methods, the above described recording apparatuses can be classified into an ink jet type, a wire dot type, a thermal type, laser beam type and the like.
Out of these recording apparatuses, the ink jet type recording apparatus (ink jet recording apparatus) performs recording by discharging ink from recording means (a recording head) to the recording medium, permits easily configuring the recording means compact, is capable of recording a highly precise image at a high speed and is capable of recording on ordinary paper with no special treatment. Furthermore, the ink jet recording apparatus has merits that it requires a low running cost, that it is of a non-impact type which makes low noise, that it is capable of easily recording a color image using a large kinds of ink (for example, color ink) and the like.
Recording media usable with the ink jet recording apparatus are recording media which are made of recording materials such as paper, plastic sheets and the like as well as media composed of these materials (substrates) having surfaces on which ink absorbing layers having porous structures are formed by coating the surfaces with various kinds of fine inorganic materials to prevent ink from flurring.
Printers which are demanded to print high quality image in particular use coated paper exclusively for ink, carry out recording in photographic tones recently, tend to discharge a larger amount of ink and may be used at maximum water absorbing ratios of recording materials.
In order to further enhance qualities of recorded images, a certain recording apparatus is capable of enhancing an image quality and successively recording images excellent in weather resistance by forming an irreversibly changing transparent film on a recording surface of a recording material on which images have been formed.
A recording material having a layer which has an irreversibly changing physical property on a side of a recording surface is, for example, a material which has a porous polymer layer on a recording surface thereof. When this porous polymer layer is heated, the porous polymer layer becomes a transparent polymer film which covers and protects the recording surface. Furthermore, there is another recording material having a porous resin layer formed on a side of a recording surface, the layer being transformed into a transparent resin film covering a recording surface to protect the recording surface by heating the recording material. Any way, a transparent protective film is formed on a surface of a recording material by passing the recording material between a heating roller heated to a high temperature and a pressurizing roller for applying a high pressure so that a recording surface of the recording material is opposed to the heating roller. That is, the recording surface of the recording material is brought into contact with the heating roller, whereby a surface of the heating roller is transferred to a surface of the transparent porous layer of the recording material. When the surface of heating roller is injured, an injury is therefore transferred to the surface of the transparent porous layer, resulting in degradation of image quality.
As means for solving the above described problem to enhance an image quality and a weathering resistance, there is a method which forms a transparent polymer layer on a surface of a recording material after recording. That is, a surface of a recording material on which an image has been recorded and a surface of a porous polymer layer of the transferring material are opposed to each other and passed between a pair of rollers which are kept at a high temperature and a high pressure, thereby integrating the recording material with the transferring material by heat and pressure. After the integrated recording material is sufficiently cooled subsequently, only a plastic sheet is peeled off from a side of the transferring material, thereby forming a transparent porous polymer layer formed on the surface of the recording material. Since this method does not allow the rollers to be brought into direct contact with the porous polymer layer but brings the rollers to be brought into contact by way of the plastic sheet, thereby preventing the injury on the surface of the roller from being transferred to the porous polymer layer and providing a recording of a favorable quality.
However, the conventional example has the following problem. it is necessary to lower a temperature sufficiently when peeling off the plastic sheet from the recording material. A heat dissipating plate which dissipates heat from the recording material and the plastic sheet may therefore be disposed downstream of the heating roller and the pressurizing roller in a conveying direction. When fixing is carried out successively or a recording material having a large heat capacity is subjected to fixing, however, a temperature of a heat dissipating body is raised, whereby temperatures of the recording material and the plastic sheet may not be lowered sufficiently. When the plastic sheet is peeled off from the recording material in a condition where the recording material and the plastic sheet are not cooled to a predetermined temperature or lower, the plastic sheet may be peeled improperly from the surface or an end of the porous polymer layer, thereby degrading an image quality on the recording material. Though it is effective for suppressing the temperature rise of the heat dissipating body to dispose cooling means utilizing a fan or a thermo-module (Peltier element), the cooling means is remarkably expensive and is large in size.
An object of the present invention is to provide a laminating apparatus which shortens a time required for recording, and provides a recorded material having a high image quality, subjected to a laminating treatment, and a recording apparatus comprising the laminating apparatus.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a laminating apparatus which is configured to be capable of performing a high grade laminating treatment in a short time by carrying out drying and cooling of a sheet with a high efficiency, and a recording apparatus comprising the laminating apparatus.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a laminating apparatus for laminating an object to be laminated with a laminating film, comprising a lamination object conveying means for conveying the object, laminating film conveying means for conveying the laminating film, heating-pressurizing means for overlapping the laminating film with the object, and heating and pressuring the laminating film and the object, heat dissipating means, disposed downstream the above described heating-pressurizing means in a conveying direction, for dissipating heat from the object and the laminating film overlapped by the above described heating-pressurizing means, and heating-pressurizing releasing means for releasing the heating-pressuring by the above described heating-pressurizing means.